Districts News Roundup

High-school athletes in Tupelo, Miss., face mandatory drug testing
beginning this fall under a plan adopted last month by the Tupelo city
school board.

Under the program, approved on a 4-0 vote, Tupelo High School's 350
athletes in grades 10 to 12 would be required to undergo urine testing
at the beginning of the sports season. Athletes also would be subject
to random tests.

Any athlete found to have used illegal drugs would be required to
undergo counseling. If a second test showed evidence of continuing
abuse, the athlete would be suspended from sports programs. Suspended
athletes could be reinstated after completing a counseling program and
testing as drug-free.

Parents and students have supported the idea since the plan was
first proposed in May, according to Ricky J. Black, the school's
athletic director.

At least one federal court has upheld drug tests for students
participating in extracurricular activities. But courts have struck
down mass screening programs involving all students.

Illinois District Erred in Barring Handicapped Student From Sports

A panel appointed by an Illinois school district was not qualified
to decide whether a disabled student should be permitted to compete in
regular high-school sports, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Roszkowski held that the Rochelle
Township school board violated Scot Hollenbeck's civil rights by
failing to comply with a hearing officer's decision that the student
could be barred from regular sports teams only if a panel of experts
found that it would be unsafe.

A panel made up of two special educators, the student's counselor,
his physical therapist, a nurse, the school's athletic director, a
sociologist, and the school's principal decided it would be unsafe for
Mr. Hollenbeck to compete on the regular track team. It limited his
sports participation to golf, tennis, and a wheelchair division of the
track team.

The judge found that not only was the panel unqualified to make such
a determination, but also had acted unfairly by denying the student a
chance to present expert testimony on the safety question. Mr.
Hollenbeck, a wheelchair athlete, has set national records in
swimming.

A pilot plan to test doorway metal detectors in five New York City high
schools has been dropped as too costly.

Schools Chancellor Richard R. Green made the decision after learning
that the project would cost $9 million--$2 million for the equipment
and $7 million to operate it. School officials, who are studying a
variety of ideas to stem school violence, say they are still
considering less costly hand-held detectors.

The Jefferson Parish, La., school board wants to know if any of its
employees are working while intoxicated.

Under a "noninvasive'' testing plan being considered, only
on-the-job drug abuse would be targeted--by means of random, private
examinations of an employee's balance, eye movement, memory, and
attention span. Workers found to be intoxicated would be sent home for
the rest of the day on sick leave and encouraged to enroll in a drug or
alcohol assistance program.

Any employee who failed the test three times would be given a
urinalysis test and disciplined if the results indicated illegal drug
use. The program would cost about $100,000 to implement, officials
say.

Teachers improperly urged use of the drug Ritalin on a 13-year-old
student, the boy's parents have charged in a $1.3-million lawsuit
against the Gwinnett County, Ga., school system.

Rilla and Lonnie Cothran say the district labeled their son David as
emotionally handicapped, even though other doctors diagnosed the boy as
reading-disabled. Following the teachers' recommendations, the couple
asked a physician to prescribe the drug, which is a controversial
medication used to treat attention-deficit disorders in children. The
Cothrans say the drug caused their son to be disoriented.

The school district has denied that teachers gave the parents
medical advice.

The state board of regents is not doing enough to help troubled schools
in New York City, according to a report by the state comptroller's
office.

The audit charges that the board of regents, which oversees the
state department of education, overemphasizes support for suburban and
upstate districts at the expense of the city's schools.

In one example cited in the audit, the department had assigned 16
education specialists to assist 45 low-performing schools outside the
city, but only 11 for the 400 such schools within the city.

A new study by a New York City watchdog group projects that about 26
percent of the city's high-school students will fail to graduate within
four years.

Black leaders in Houston are pondering a campaign to carve out a
separate school district in the inner city.

Consideration of a break-away district--an idea that mirrors
proposals being discussed in several other cities--has been spurred by
anger at Superintendent of Schools Joan Raymond's plans to transfer a
number of black administrators to new jobs within the Houston
Independent School District.

State Representative Al Edwards will head a committee to study the
separate-district proposal. Some black leaders have accused Ms. Raymond
of racism, on the grounds that the new jobs given black administrators
provide them with little real power.

More than half the children entering the Chicago public schools are
unable to recite their first and last names, speak in complete simple
sentences, sit still for a brief story, identify colors, or draw stick
figures, according to a recent Chicago Sun-Times survey of kindergarten
teachers.

The newspaper poll found dramatic differences between Chicago
kindergartners and those of nearby Wilmette. Kindergarten teachers in
that affluent suburb said almost all their students had the basic
skills needed to begin school work.

For the first time in more than a decade, the St. Paul school system
will provide counselors for troubled elementary-school students.

Under a proposal approved by the school board, the system will hire
two elementary-school counselors, one with school-district funds and
another with federal funds earmarked for early-intervention
programs.

The Citizens Budget and Finance Committee, a panel of teachers,
parents, and citizens appointed by the board, had proposed that the
district hire four to six such counselors.

Criticism by the state education department of vocational and career
education in Boston has spurred city officials to consider taking
control of some school-system programs.

Mayor Raymond L. Flynn's employment commission held a hearing in
late June to examine why vocational programs in a city with a large and
growing labor shortage nevertheless were experiencing sharp decreases
in enrollment.

A recent state report had chided school officials for administrative
delays and budget cuts, which it said had harmed the city's main
vocational school, the Hubert Humphrey Occupational Resource
Center.

The employment commission is expected this month to recommend
improvements in the city's employment-training system.

Dearborn, Mich., school officials are working with students and parents
to head off any problems when they begin busing Arab-American pupils
this fall.

The new busing plan, aimed at reducing overcrowded conditions in
three schools with large Arab-American enrollments, will transfer up to
450 students to four schools with low enrollments of such students.

The Detroit suburb has the nation's largest population of
Arab-Americans.

Web Only

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.